“Alward never said a thing, nothing at all about a twin. But, there was always something he searched for, something he said was lost. His research into the Veil, his experiments in the woods... Are you sure it was you?” Eloryn asked.
Memory gave a wry laugh. “How the hell could I be sure? I’m just trying to add up what I’ve found out so far, and that’s what it seems to come to.”
Eloryn took a step forward, raising a hand. “May I see how you appear without the dye in your hair?”
“Uh, I guess?”
Eloryn whispered a few words, and Memory felt no change.
Roen however blew a soft whistle. “There’s no question. Identical.”
Memory reached and twirled a lock of hair in front of her eyes, finding it the same ivory blonde as Eloryn’s. She wished for a mirror, to see if she really did look just like the beautiful, delicate creature Eloryn, whom she’d spent unconfessed time envying. It made sense, more than any other explanation had so far, but it just seemed surreal not only to now have a sister, but an identical twin. Whenever she imagined finding her family, she imagined happy smiles and hugs all around. Now, she stared at her twin, too awkward to move. Eloryn stared back mutely. Memory waited for some overwhelming joy or familial love to wash over her. It didn’t come. She felt for Eloryn, undeniably, but was it the way a sister feels? Maybe she was in shock. Maybe the unanswered questions still blocked her.
She pounded her forehead with her palm. “But, but, but… We saw when we were born, but what happened next?”
A quiet voice came from the shadows nearby. “You always said you were found as a baby, right near the orphanage. All cut up with that wicked scar you like showing people.”
Will, oh God, I completely forgot he was here. Still watching me from hiding, Memory thought, unsettled by the idea. Will told her he wanted to protect her, but his fairy friends didn’t seem to have the same intent. She couldn’t help wondering whose purpose he served first.
“And I grew up there? In some other world? How could there be another world?”
“There were other lands, once,” Eloryn said. “Before the Pact. But the fae foresaw the end of days, which is why the Pact was made. Avall was separated into the Veil, to save the fae and the people of Avall from the hell that would swallow the rest of the world. Maybe, maybe some human life has survived beyond Avall?”
“Our world wasn’t Hell.” Will shifted in the shadows, his voice quiet and hard.
“I didn’t mean...” Eloryn dropped her head, then looked back up at Memory. “I’m just saying what I know of Avall’s history. To travel across the Veil into other lands simply isn’t done. The fae used to, to bring back imports to trade, but even they haven’t for centuries.”
Memory paced short, shaky steps, putting together the pieces of her lost life. Her body felt weak and wasted, but her mind ran on overdrive. “Thayl travelled through, Will saw him. Thayl came after me, to steal the magic from me, when I was like this, same age and everything. He took my memories, my powers, and all three of us fell back through.”
She faintly saw Will nod in the darkness of the oak’s shadow.
“You got there at the same time as Thayl. Dead bodies all around, you said, so it was before he took over, just after we were born? Oh God, that was sixteen years ago.”
Memory ran out of direction for her mind and her feet. He’d waited for her, lost in the forest for sixteen years? How could she possibly have been a good enough friend to have deserved that? Her current record didn’t feel up to scratch. She turned away, suddenly finding it hard to look at Will. Her next question came out in a whisper. “But I didn’t get through. I was what, just gone all that time?”
“The place we first met, where you appeared in my Veil door, it was the very same clearing we were born,” Eloryn told her. “It makes sense. If that is where you left this world from, that is where you would return into it. If you were lost in the Veil, time within it does not behave the same. You did not change, age, even think for all the years you were held by it. In magic, like calls to like. When I stumbled through, a troubled Veil door already, it pulled us both out there. It is all I can guess.”
“Same DNA definitely falls in the alike category. And if you hadn’t? I’d still be what? Nowhere? Forever?”
Eloryn bit her lower lip and shrugged.
“Uh, but I still don’t get it! Thayl had no magic, right, only got it from me? The magic he used to kill the King-” My father? “and the wizards right after we were born, but he took it from me when I was this age? Thayl said we were connected, in space and time. Could he have travelled forward in time into the other world to find me even though it was right after we were born here?”
Roen cleared his throat. He stood next to Will, looking grave. “Memory, I know you still have questions but we’ve tarried here too long. I’m told by your tracker here we were far too easy to find,” he said, tilting his head to Will. “We need to start moving again, now, before the trail of blood leads more to us. Most of Thayl’s men were killed, but he lives. He could be anywhere.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. Which way do we go?” Memory said, dragging her wandering mind back to her current problems, away from those of her past. She felt half dead from the magic she’d used to heal Eloryn, and she hoped they wouldn’t have to go far this time. She was so tired of running.
“Wherever we can hide.”
“No,” Eloryn said, more firmness in her voice than Memory had ever heard.
“Princess?” Roen turned back, having already taken a few steps.
“I can’t keep running. There is only one place for me to go now. To Thayl, to do what must be done.”
Memory had heard Eloryn use this tone before, times she pulled her shoulders back and acted the noble part. But in the past it never sounded true, as some wisp of doubt, some whine always tinged its color. Not any more. This was the voice of royalty, royalty with a purpose.
“There is nothing that must be done but keep you safe. Both of you, now more than ever, both equal as heirs and in Thayl’s want of you,” Roen said, his voice gruff and low.
“There is an unbreakable oath to the seelie fae. There is revenge.”
“Revenge?” Roen lifted his hands, still red from her blood. His voice rose and he yelled, right at Eloryn. “You think of revenge when less than an hour ago you were lying bloody and dying? How do you think you can beat this man who’s killed so many who tried? What could you possibly do?”
Eloryn blinked as though she would cry. Roen’s words echoed in the tangible silence, but when Eloryn spoke again, her voice did not waver. “We know more about Thayl and his magic than anyone ever has. I can take his power from him. Take back all he stole from Memory, and take back my throne. Our throne. I will see revenge for the death of our father, for the Wizards’ Council, for Alward and for our mother. And I know how I will do it all.”
Silence again. Everyone stared at Eloryn.
Memory forced her tense shoulders down. “So what’s the plan, Princess? As much as the idea of seeing Thayl again makes me want to barf out my happy thoughts, I’m with you. I want back what’s mine.” I want back my soul. I don’t want to feel like THIS any more. Without my soul, I might as well be a demon.
Eloryn smiled in straight mouthed relief. “I do have a plan. Mostly,” she admitted. “There is a clear connection between you and Thayl. Your rune scars, his runed hand, and his magic. Thayl is simply using magic he stole from you. If we can separate him from that, he will be nothing more than a normal man. My hope is, given the nature of magic, that once freed the power and memories should also return where they belong.”
“And his guards, his army, his wizard hunters and anti-magic poisons?” Roen growled.
“They will be suffering other distractions, and won’t stop me reaching Thayl,” Eloryn countered. “All I need is a way to get us into the castle.”
Roen turned away, tearing a hand through his hair. Memory grabbed him by the shoulder
and pulled him back. He winced at her, his eyes pleading.
“I can’t do this, I can’t keep you safe if you take this path,” he said.
“It’s not your responsibility to keep us safe, Roen,” Memory said. “You don’t even need to be here if you don’t want to. We all look after each other, even if that’s when facing our problems instead of hiding from them.”
Roen shook his head, looking away into the black of silhouetted trees.
“You needn’t stay any longer Roen. I will look after myself now, and I’d rather not see more trouble for you on my behalf,” Eloryn said, a quiver finally breaking into her voice.
Roen stalked straight up to Eloryn with such ferocity it seemed he could hit her. Eloryn flinched but stood her ground.
He breathed deeply three times before he spoke, with each word separate and low. “I won’t leave you again.”
In the pause that followed, a gust of wind like a cool night breeze was their only warning.
Then the air rushed, blowing down so strong it knocked them off their feet, throwing them onto the forest floor. The strongest branches of the ancient oak that sheltered them screeched and split, a massive weight bending them down.
Memory gasped away from the wet dirt in front of her face. She spun onto her back, confused, and looked up to see that the sky had fallen. Pitch black and sparkling in stars, it draped over the tree above, and slithered off it, down around the branches to the ground in front of her. It snapped huge emerald cat eyes at her, sniffing then snorting hot air. Her now blonde hair gusted and fell.
Memory screamed. Eloryn next to her sat motionless in terror. Memory dragged her into a protective embrace, Roen backing in front of them. Will appeared by their side, growling like an animal. A clutch of cornered mice awaiting the cat.
The dragon took a step forward with a claw still slick in Eloryn’s blood, washed under that of many others.
“Quiet small ones.” The creature lowered its glittering head down to their level. He spoke without movement, in a low growl that reverberated through their bodies. “I am not here to destroy.”
They remained huddled together. The beast made no other action, just waited and watched.
“You won’t hurt us?” Memory asked, confused.
“Indeed no.” Words came slowly, an earthquake of sound. “I come to grant a boon for my release from imprisonment, in the last time I shall ever be in service to a human.” Its last word held such distaste it made Memory squeeze Eloryn tighter.
“Thank you,” Memory said in a squeak, feeling even more a mouse. “For not killing us.”
The dragon’s head gave a shallow nod. “What else would you have from me?”
“What the hell’s a boon?” Memory hissed into Eloryn’s ear.
“Anything I can offer that is within my power,” the dragon answered through unmoving mouth, the sound growling through their bodies.
Memory gaped, wide eyed. “And what is within your power?”
A sound like autumn leaves, crumbling stones and crashing tides. The dragon laughing?
“We’ll have no more debts with fae creatures,” said Roen.
“This is no debt. You will be rid of me forever once my boon is given. Now think well on what you would have.”
Eloryn stammered, still clinging to Memory. “Could you-?”
Huge green eyes fastened on hers. “Let the one to whom I’m indebted ask.” The dragon raised its voice, enough for them to feel it like an ache inside.
Memory shivered under the weight of its gaze. What did she want most? “Can you bring back my memories?”
“Not while they are held by another.”
Her mouth moved uselessly. She rolled her eyes, looking for inspiration. She needed her memories back. Without them how could she even know what she wanted? Thayl stole them from her and she had to find a way to get them back. “We need to get to the castle and deal with Thayl. Can you get us to Thayl? Fly us there?”
The dragon huffed. “I am no beast of burden. You think like those hunters, seeing me only as a predator and animal, never even considering my true power. So be it. You want to travel, then for your boon I will teach you how. I have seen how you fold the world and move across it. You have the power already, but random, limited, human.”
“The Veil doors?” Eloryn breathed.
“Only that one will learn,” the dragon boomed, pointing with a reaching claw at Memory. “Defying nature’s laws as she does, yet it is still she that I owe.”
With a lash of its tail, the dragon took Memory and vanished with her into the Veil.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Within the Veil, time meant nothing. Neither did space, or self. Memory could see panic within her like watching from a distance, but a strange sense of calm kept it smothered. The very sensation, although disconcerting, made her grateful. It meant she could still think, still feel. She still existed. This time, unlike the last time she had spent within the Veil, she was aware. Even if it still felt only like a faded dream as she lived it.
In the presence of the dragon, the raging winds she remembered of the Veil were also calmed. Hollowness and pure power surrounded them. She could almost see it moving, a force of nature and life within the gusts and ribbons of wind that flowed out like a golden tide. It swarmed like particles around her chest, warming the fire within her.
The dragon whispered to her, its voice worming its way deep into her subconscious. The long pages of magical words any other person in Avall would need to behest a Veil door were distilled into basic theory. A concept rather than a contract, a way of understanding that Memory could use. The idea of using it horrified her. What if I could be lost again?
After a length of time that felt both instant and eternal, the dragon brought Memory back to her friends and the forest. The looks of outrage and horror she had seen on their faces when she was snatched away were still there. Not a moment had passed for them.
Memory breathed deeply, enjoying real air in her lungs until Eloryn latched onto her in a shaking embrace, squeezing the air back out again. Over Eloryn’s shoulder, Memory smiled to Roen and Will. Will flinched and turned away. Looking faint, he leaned suddenly against the trunk of the closest tree. I could have been lost again.
Eloryn let go, backed away and looked at her with a face full of questions. The dragon spoke as though in answer, all its focus on Memory. “You’ve been taught, now you must be tested, to know you can control what has been bestowed.”
“Right now?” Memory gulped, filled with stage fright.
“I will watch over your first journey through the Veil. You will be safe.”
Memory turned to Eloryn and Roen. “Where do we go from here? To Thayl?”
“Somewhere safe,” said Roen. His jaw moved as though he had to force the words through. “If Eloryn has a plan, we will hear it, but we will hear it somewhere safe.”
“I know where.” Eloryn nodded, and took a long moment before she turned her eyes from Roen back to Memory. She spoke her words of magic that formed images of illustrations and maps.
Eyes closed, Memory filled her mind with the place Eloryn shared with her. The fire within her burned and she could feel the Veil all around her, how it hovered over and connected to the physical world like a shimmering net. She reached with her hands but touched nothing. She moved as though conducting an orchestra, pinching the Veil, bringing it together by two points of the world like folding a map, and tore it at that point. She opened her eyes to see the dark wisps of Veil door standing in front of them.
The fire inside her cooled and with the chill that followed she felt a rush of disappointment that she’d succeeded. Memory shook pins and needles out of her hands. It would have been better if she couldn’t do it. She never wanted to step through a portal like that again. Just seeing this magical doorway- like the one from her very first memory, the one she summoned the dragon through, the one she was thrown through as a baby- made her chest ache as though it had been carved again.
>
The dragon waited.
Under his intimidating gaze, Eloryn stepped up to the doorway first. She nodded to Memory confidently, but the next step, the one that would take her into the Veil, didn’t come.
“Do you not trust your sister, or do you not trust me?” the dragon rumbled. It almost sounded amused.
Eloryn paled. Memory didn’t find it particularly funny either. She and Roen took their place on either side of Eloryn, and took a step.
Eloryn and Roen vanished, but a hand grabbed onto Memory, pulling her back. She looked up into Will’s eyes.
Will shook his head in a brisk movement, his mouth formed “No” but no sound came out.
The dragon’s shape loomed behind Will like a mound of black diamonds. Impatience oozed from him. Roen and Eloryn were already on the other side of Avall. “I have to go through. Come with me?”
Will slumped forward as if in pain. He reached a hand toward the smoky tendrils, then looked into her eyes. “This time I won’t let go.”
Memory crushed his hand in hers. She tried to be brave, for him, but still released a tiny, crying scream as she stepped through.
They arrived at a small cottage. It overlooked a sea that ended in a horizon of mist, lit by a near full moon. Lonely on a rocky bluff made barren by salty winds, a grove of malformed grey trees skirted the cottage, making it more sinister than cozy. Will vanished again into those trees the moment they arrived.
The dragon did not travel with them, and Memory knew she wasn’t the only one to hope they wouldn’t meet again.
Slowly, they shuffled indoors. Their grand scheme to stay up planning was laid to waste when they all passed out from exhaustion.
“That’s it,” Eloryn said.
“That’s the plan?” asked Memory.
“That is the plan.”
“Huh,” Memory said. She sat on the very edge of a plush armchair, knees bouncing, chewing her lips. Blood red rays of the setting sun cast over waves below and through the wide open windows, dragging in the smell of rotting seaweed and sea foam. They had slept like the dead, and woken late. In the remaining hours of sunlight, Eloryn reviewed every last piece of information they had, every angle and advantage, until she finally explained her plan.
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